Adapt or Die: Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Change

- January 17, 2017

There’s been a lot of recent updates on tools and features in the social media world the past few weeks, allowing for brands to tell their stories and market to their audiences in even more ways. These changes won’t be the first announcement this year, as we all predicted, so what does this mean? How do businesses and marketers keep up with the changes? Here are a few of my tips on how to manage and adapt your social media strategy in an ever-changing industry.

Embrace change, learn and experiment.

Social media channels, platforms and tools continue to develop and enhance their capabilities for ways to distribute content in effective and even faster ways. Luckily, our customers have been programmed to expect this by now. Use this to your advantage, learn along with them and test it out. Stay knowledgeable and familiarize yourself with all the news and updates. Vary your content for these new contexts of marketing to keep it exciting and enticing for your audience. As always, knowing your target market and studying your audiences is key to knowing where best to distribute content and messaging. Acknowledge audience feedback, analyze if your story is compelling in its new context and modify your strategy if needed. You can always come back and test it again as the new aspects become familiar to the industry and your customers. Being flexible and open-minded is essential!

On the other hand, just because there is a new tool or feature doesn’t mean it’s right for your business and marketing strategy.

You don’t have to be everywhere and you don’t have to use everything. Wanting to dive into the newness is compelling however, these advances make it easy to lose sight of the intended strategy and a businesses’ messaging or purpose can get clouded along the way if you are not careful. Knowing your target market will help aid your distribution strategy. Even if you are pushing out engaging content, if your customers and audiences you are trying to reach are not viewing your content, it’s not worth being present in that space. Even more so, knowing your brand and staying true to its authenticity, purpose and messaging will help you determine where best to focus your social media strategy. Having a clear vision and plan for your social media strategy will help you to reduce clutter and confusion and will assist in vetting out each new opportunity. If you know your story inside and out, you’ll know how to adapt it for a new avenue of marketing and whether it will fit and resonate for your target. Don’t force it. Know yourself and your core values, and stick to them in all methods of marketing.

It’s safe to say the digital marketing world will continue to evolve and this year will be full of changes. We’ll be learning along with you and providing our views and tips for your business and marketing strategies. Stay tuned for even more insider insight!

Commexis’ Manager of Branding Melissa Shaine, holds a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising and a minor in Human Resource Management from Philadelphia University. She has expertise in social media, brand strategy and execution.